Sub Zero

Years ago I listened to an entertaining, enlightening and encouraging talk from Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Sir Ranulph has done all manner of inspiring adventures, including an attempt to walk to the North Pole, alone. That was when he foolishly decided to take a glove off and stick his hand into sub zero water to free up one of his sledges. The result? Frostbitten fingers which he later had to cut off with a hacksaw blade. It makes for a great after dinner talk, but it's not something I would want to do.

Well it was sub zero yesterday when Kate Broadbent went off to practise in her Senior Rotax kart at Bayford Meadows. The temperature gauge in the van read -2° and there were icey puddles on the dummy grid. Some of the Bambino drivers were running around smashing the ice with hammers.

"Take it easy" I said, as Kate floored it into the first bend. How she kept the kart on the track in that first session I'll never know, and it was super scary to watch. And even then, Kate was disappointed with her 47.9s lap time. I pointed out that she had very little tread on her very, very worn Mojos. The next session she pulled in consistent 47 point somethings. But for session three, I returned from parking the trolley to see her standing with a marshal and her kart off the track and on the grass by the tyre wall. I didn't see what happened, and she seemed okay. (We've since come up with a hand signal system, actually just a thumbs up, to let me know that everything's okay, which it was.) I did the post-session walk of shame to collect the kart. Not bent, thankfully. The chain had come off. Now I'm fastidious with kart maintenance, so I was surprised that the chain had come off. It's a simple job to put it back on, but when I checked the kart, half the teeth on the front sprocket had broken off. That's why the chain came off. I'd brought loads of spares, but not another 12 tooth sprocket. And I hadn't packed the clutch holder either.

What I like about Bayford Meadows though, is that there's a Project One shop and workshop. The brilliant guys from Project One were happy to help me out. They couldn't get the broken sprocket off, so I had to buy another clutch drum and sprocket. £85 and a replacement chain (I did have one of those in the van), one session missed, a quick chicken burger for lunch, and Kate was back on the track.

Lap time down to 47.4s, and we swapped the now very, very, very worn Mojos for some very worn Mojos and lap time was down to 47 flat. Happy with the extra grip, Kate started braking later and harder, and she finished the day with a 46.9s. That was pretty impressive given the conditions. And Kate was pleased.

Next week we're dismantling the chassis and taking it off to ASR Fabrication for a jig and a check. Kate spotted a couple of cracked seat stays. I'm sure Tony at ASR will spot other stuff too.

And then we'll be back, practising again. We lost front sprocket teeth and cracked a couple of seat stays in today's session. Nothing compared to losing your fingers like Sir Ranulph, and surely, surely it won't be so cold when we return.